Postal workers and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

[e-mail]

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

Postal workers and Mahatma Gandhi

 

I was almost going to address you as comrades. Because the Congress is trying to undertake in India all life and activities, so we have labour unions, postal unions and several other unions taking up the Congress work I know something of the lives of post men in India. Before I come to that, I must tell you what a pleasure it was to come. It was your enthusiasm that brought me, especially the story of your work for the Leper Asylum. I felt irresistibly drawn to you and was so pleased to find that postmen could take such living interest in the oppressed humanity in India. I felt it was too good to be true. This visit of mine is a compliment to you and I congratulate Mr. Cardinal. This work done in India really touches only the fringe of it. Life in India is constituted quite differently from life in the West and we have not in India anything like State-regulated charity. People know the value of charity themselves so in India philanthropy of people finds its way in a healthy channel. I cannot say that all charity is wisely exercised.

You will find in streets lepers staring you in the face and it are difficult to pass through these people to go to a leper asylum. Some have become rich and some are exploiters. In the midst of this position workers have dropped from the West. It is one of the few things that have come as a boon from the West. There is no comparison between your postal employees and ours. Your officers give me joy, but there is nothing that I can offer you by way of comparison. Our men are a wretchedly paid people (10/6 per month), exceedingly hard-worked men. Among a few organizations that are ably conducted, this Postal Department is one Postal union exists merely to ventilate grievances. I dare not suggest to my postmen to copy you and to subscribe for lepers. Whilst I congratulate you upon the noble work you are doing for lepers, I would like you to take more and more interest in your fellow workers in India. They have not got compact organizations. They are struggling to live and they do not know how to express themselves precisely writing in a foreign tongue. It will be a matter of charity to these younger fellow-workers of yours in India to go to the substance of these matters. You are capable of varying interests. Give of the plenty that God has blessed you with.

You know what the post office does for us it does our censoring work. I have come here to take complete independence for my country in the dictionary sense of the word. Some laugh at me look at this man coming from a nation so utterly divided against it. That is because you are being taught false history: that if Britain withdrew there would be chaos, darkness invisible, and there is an instance Kashmir. The Maharaja had to invite the over-worked English soldiers to go and impose order. The whole thing seems to me to be stage-managed. I do not mean that the whole trouble was fomented and soldiers were to be asked for at particular hours. No, but it is the policy of divide and rule. The Maharaja could do nothing. You do not know what it is to be under a foreign yoke and to be a subject race not holding arms. If that is the condition of the man in the street, condition of the Princes is worse. They cannot do as they choose. They have 21 gun salutes, palaces, but they are prisoners in their own palaces, because while they have power of life and death on their people, they have no real power.

They have armies, but are they free to train them in any way they like? These Princes are the blotting -sheet of your armory. You’re thrown-out arms the Princes use. The Nizam is fabulously rich. Could he do anything he liked against Jathas? These princes are utterly helpless; the restrictions may be well deserved or ill deserved, they are not independent but impotent. At the critical moment they cannot take measures they want to take. Residuary powers vest in the overlord. That is the state of things my whole being rebels against. Indian Civil Service is freemasonry, the greatest secret society in the world; therefore, the spell that this Civil Service has cast upon you should be destroyed. I myself showered compliments on them. If I was a loyalist among loyalists, I was delighted, but after 30 years my eyes were opened and I found that underneath it was all brass. Therefore, when an Englishman tells me that you cannot defend yourself, he is paying an ill compliment to the British rule in India.

We are one of the most ancient nations, depositories of a matchless civilization. Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek where are they? Ancient India lives in the modern. A civilization which has persisted throughout all ages, through invasions of Genghis and Ghazni, India has lived. There was nothing so hopelessly wrong about India when the British came and they made it fight. We could have put up a fight. That nation which has survived all tests finds itself paralyzed that is not quite true though. I speak as a humble representative of a vast organization, the greatest the world possesses. This is a unique example in history of a world organization which has no army to back it and has carried on a sustained fight for 30 years. It is a romantic story, although I say it in all truth and humility. It is a nation which has hurled defiance against the whole Empire. Look at the other part of the enchanting story constructive work of an amazing character, Postal Unions, Railway Unions covering thousands of members. We have men who have dedicated their lifetime: Malaviyaji. It is a libel both on England and India to say that we are incapable of managing our affairs. You can certainly mould public opinion. We may have to go through fiery ordeals of suffering and, when you hear of them, you will recall tonight’s meeting and give your share. It is bound to count if it is knowingly, willingly, intelligently given.

 

Reference:

Speech at Meeting of postal works’ union, November 5, 1931